


you doing okay there, glenn?

by SpacePancake



Category: Dungeons and Daddies (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, almost hurt/comfort but no one is really comforted, but not quite angsty sad just like “oh fuck” sad, glenn and henry are both just kinda sad, henry inner monologues like a drama queen, like bro shut up we get it you have thoughts, spoilers for episode 48 onwards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-04
Updated: 2021-02-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 10:53:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29188098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpacePancake/pseuds/SpacePancake
Summary: SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 48 ONWARDSThey escape the Meth Bay Supermax without much trouble, but Henry thinks Glenn is more upset than he’s letting on. They have a late night conversation.
Relationships: but it’s mostly dad friendship, you could probably read glenn/henry if you wanted
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23





	you doing okay there, glenn?

**Author's Note:**

> just a little quick drabble for funzies to get over writer’s block

Henry sees Glenn and knows it’s been much longer than a few days for him almost instantly. He takes note of the long shaggy hair that falls over half his face and the remnants of a beard roughly cut down to size with a blade and his new-found muscles, quickly piecing together that it might have been _years_ for Glenn. His heart sinks, his hands clam up, it’s suddenly hard to swallow. He doesn’t think they delayed their rescue attempt very long, but he finds his mind racing back over the last few days, wondering what time they could’ve shaved off that would’ve granted Glenn his freedom sooner.

As all of this comes together, so too does a picture of Glenn in Henry’s mind. He’s quiet and weak and broken.

But he looks up, and the Glenn standing there isn’t like that at all. He may have been more rugged than usual, but he’s never looked better otherwise. A prison break has seemingly put Glenn in his element, and for once, he’s taking the lead completely. It gives Henry more time to think.

Glenn’s as confident and cocky as always, only occasionally stopping his master plan in motion to ask what the rest of them know about the layout of the place. At some point, Darryl asks if Glenn needs to break anyone else out.

Glenn laughs, letting the rat on his shoulder clamber onto his hand, and holds it out to Darryl. He explains it was just him and the rat down there, trying to spin it into a joke. It falls flat and everyone tries to move quickly past it.

Glenn was down there for years, in solitude. Henry tries to imagine that kind of isolation, only having a rat for company. He doesn’t know how he would manage it, he doesn’t know if he could function without people around. He’s not sure if he should be in awe of how well Glenn is coping or worried for a major breakdown yet to come.

There are some little things off about Glenn though. Henry is good at noticing small details about the people around him. Sometimes it’ll be remembering how people like their coffee after the first time they make it around him, but honestly (because honest self-reflection is important), more often than not, it’s to scrutinize. 

Glenn isn’t looking at Nicholas or Jodie at all. He’s actively avoiding their gazes, eyes skipping over them as if they were invisible. He’s never the one to respond when either of the Fosters speak, never shows a sign that he can even hear them. If Henry didn’t know better, he’d think that Glenn wasn’t even aware that they were there.

He speaks to the rest of them when they ask him something or if he wants to talk about how smart he is, but anytime a conversation gets sidetracked, he doesn’t join in. As per usual for the group, a few goofs start up here and there, but Glenn simply waits for them to be done before leading them forward again.

Henry doesn’t like this one ding-dang bit.

They get out of the prison fine, of course. They’re ridiculously lucky assholes most of the time. They’re battered and bruised for their efforts but, at long last, they’re free and they have Glenn back and that’s all that really matters.

They take up camp at Book Castle. It’s nearby and probably safer than an inn right in the middle of ‘Prison Town, Narcville’, as Glenn called it. They figure there’s probably some shitty side quest further into the castle, so they stick to the foyer for the night. There’s mismatched sofas and armchairs scattered about the room, so there’s plenty of places to sleep, even if it’s going to kill their backs in the morning. Not the worst campsite they’ve ever had.

Jodie and Nicholas both choose their seats first. Jodie settles down on the large couch covered in blankets, and Nicholas quickly tucks himself under his arm. Glenn and Ron both take seats on the far opposite side of the room. Darryl heads to the same side as the other two with Paeden in tow, but isn’t as obvious about it. Henry himself elects to stick closer to Jodie and Nicholas so that they don’t realise something is off.

  
  


Henry wakes in the middle of the night. He quickly scans the room for danger and finds nothing barring the fact that Glenn isn’t where he last saw him. His mind jumps to the worst case scenarios. Maybe escaping jail was impossible, and magic has just dragged him back in. Maybe he was supposed to be erased from the timeline and it has finally caught up to them.

There’s a soft grunt from somewhere across the room and then a, “Fuck,” that definitely comes from Glenn. They only left a few torches lit overnight, but the dim light is enough that Henry can just barely make out Glenn’s silhouette close to the door. It seems that he’s tripped over the carpet.

A cold draft briefly circles the room as Glenn heaves open the castle doors, letting them close behind him as he leaves. Henry is very impressed that such heavy doors make so little noise as they shut, and wonders if it’s the magic of this world at play or just the magic of architecture.

Henry gets to his feet as quietly as he can and slips outside. Glenn doesn’t notice him at first. He’s on the ground, back against the stone wall of the castle and looking across the water at the Meth Bay Supermax in the far distance. He’s smoking a joint.

“How the frick-?” Henry says before he can stop himself.

Glenn doesn’t startle or even bother looking his way. He just sighs, watching smoke trail up into the night sky. He misinterprets Henry’s confusion. “Get off my dick, man. The kids are both asleep.”

“No, I- I didn’t mean- I just meant, how did you even _get_ weed, Glenn? We couldn’t find any of your stuff.”

“Darryl’s always got a lighter on him and I stashed some shit in Ron’s bag in case of an emergency.” Glenn explains. “He said he didn’t mind as long as I didn’t tell Samantha he was a kingpin now.”

Henry laughs before trying to stifle it in case it somehow manages to wake everyone inside. Glenn himself chuckles a little before looking up at Henry, offering him a wry smile. He holds the joint out towards him. “You want to get in on this, man?”

It dawns on Henry that he hasn’t actually seen Glenn smoking weed at all for a while now. He’s probably been doing it when no one else was around, but Henry had assumed his stash had run out a while ago. Though, he supposes that if he’s been saving it all, now seems like as good a time as any to get high for someone in his position.

Henry doesn’t really know what he wants. What he really needs is to talk to Glenn about how he’s coping, but that feels too blunt right now. Henry could definitely do with something to calm his nerves though, they’ve been practically alight all day. He gingerly sits himself beside Glenn and accepts the joint. 

Henry isn’t as fond of the ol’ devil’s lettuce as Glenn is, but he’s not completely unfamiliar with it either. He’s been in enough smoking circles to know the etiquette at least. He takes two puffs, ashes it, then hands it back to Glenn. He doesn’t take any more hits than that, letting the buzz settle into him as they sit in silence.

He isn’t magically mellowed out, but his nerves have settled down a little for now. The nagging voice in his head telling him to constantly check for danger and make sure that everything remains perfect has been muffled.

They don’t speak for a while, not until Glenn puts out the joint. Henry’s buzz has pretty much worn off at this point. Both their eyes linger on the prison off in the distance, lit up by comically large spotlights that really shouldn’t exist with the technology this world has. Then again, Walter has a motorcycle. The technological advancements this world makes are clearly inconsistent.

“Are you, uh- are you doing okay?” Henry asks reluctantly, looking to the man beside him.

“Sure.”

“It’s just that- well, you were clearly in that place for a long time, Glenn. And you were isolated! I don’t mean to make assumptions or anything but that’s not good on a person’s mental health! I know we don’t always- we disagree on a lot of things, but I just want to make sure you’re doing… uh- O-A-K, y’know?”

Glenn hums, keeping his eyes trained on the jail. “Yeah, I mean, I think it probably fucked up my sleep schedule or some shit. I can’t catch a damn wink. You ever heard of Stefania Follini?”

The sudden turn in the conversation takes Henry by surprise. “I- uh- no. Who are they?”

“She was this like- Italian woman, right? Spent about 130 days isolating underground for some sort of NASA thing, I think. Found her from some Wiki jumping one time, you ever Wiki jump?”

“... No?”

“Yeah, well, she started working on a 48 hour biological clock eventually. Time gets funky for people like that.”

“We can make adjustments to help you with that.” Henry tries to supply helpfully.

“Right… she said a bunch of shit after she got out of there too. Like, how she loved the smell of people and she- you know what she said she felt like?”

“ _How_ could I possibly know that?”

Glenn continues unbothered. “So, she was all like... sometimes she felt like she didn't exist anymore. _God_ , that’s so cool. Weird poetic shit right there.”

“Glenn.” Henry doesn’t know what else to say, he just looks to his friend with wide eyes of concern. Glenn seems to feel his gaze and averts his eyes even further, from the prison to somewhere off into the woods beside them.

Glenn laughs but it doesn’t sound very convincing. “Italians, man. Fucking crazy.”

Henry can’t think of anything to say, but as the silence between them grows uncomfortable, Glenn speaks up. 

“I thought it would be different, you know?”

“Prison?” Henry asks for clarification.

Glenn shakes his head. “Ah- _Nick_ , I mean. I thought, I don’t know, that he would still be... Nick. That if I couldn’t get him back I could still be a- like a cool uncle or something.”

  
  


“ _Oh. Glenn…”_ Henry says, voice barely above a whisper. He tries to imagine himself in Glenn’s place, his beautiful boys completely different people and utterly opposed to everything he stands for. Not that he and the twins agree on very much anyway, but their interests tend to align where it matters most and at the end of the day, they all love each other very much. Nicholas is almost _scared_ of Glenn. Henry’s tearing up just a little now. “I know, I know. He’s just… a completely different kid now. I’m sorry, that must be-“

“But he’s _not,”_ Glenn interrupts, “That’s the shittiest part, right? He just- He’s like the same little dude playing a different genre. He _talks_ the same, and he looks at the fucking - the fucking _new guy_ like he’s supposed to look at _me._ Like, what the fuck? He’s this weird mix of the same and different that just fucking _sucks.”_

Usually, when Henry doesn’t know what to say, he keeps talking until he says something useful. But right now he stays silent. Carefully, he finds Glenn’s hand and intertwines their fingers. 

His hand feels _gross_ . Glenn hasn’t actually had a bath yet since their daring escape, so that’s _years_ of grime coating his body. He’s warm though, and his hand fits neatly in Henry’s. When Glenn squeezes his hand back, any thoughts about it being nasty quickly melt away. 

“We’ll get Nick back.” Henry reassures.

Glenn looks to him. His eyes are wide and bright a moment before he turns his gaze to the floor. “Don’t fucking- I gotta keep my mind on one thing at a time, man. Escape my cell, get all of us outta prison. Next up should be getting Ron’s anchor. Or fucking… _Jo’s,_ I guess. Don’t get me focusing on something like that instead.”

Henry picks up on what he’s trying to say. Glenn doesn’t want to get focused on something that he thinks is impossible. 

He’s given up on getting Nick back.

“Glenn.”

Glenn looks at him. Gives him his full attention. Henry lets go of his hand and goes to brush back his hair the way he would to Mercedes or one of his two beautiful boys. The left side of Glenn’s face is finally visible and Henry squawks upon seeing it, jumping back instinctively and dropping the hair back over Glenn’s face.

Glenn frowns. “What’s up?”

“Your _EYE,_ Glenn!!”

Glenn gives a short chuckle before pushing the hair behind his ear to show off his face again. “Oh, yeah. Pretty sick, right?”

Henry can feel his blood pressure skyrocketing, the effects of the weed faded to a long-forgotten whisper at this point. “ _Pretty sick??_ Glenn, are you _okay?”_

“Oh, sure, dude. This happened ages ago.”

Henry takes a few deep breaths to calm himself down before he takes another look. Glenn’s eye socket is completely empty, the skin around it scarred like burns. He wants to look away, but he can’t.

“What happened?”

Glenn shrugs. “It was against the _‘rules’_ to see anything and I didn’t pull my blindfold back down in time. And the guy took his- you saw the laser sword? lightning stick? electric thing?” 

“Yeah.”

“Well, dude just shoved it into my eye, man. It was metal as hell.”

Henry feels sick.

”Do you think Faerun just sells eyepatches everywhere? I’ve been kinda set on getting one. Oh shit, maybe when we have that rematch with The Hotties that Yeet kid might know what’s up. Dude probably even has a spare or something, you can’t just have one eyepatch, right? And we’re pretty tight, I’m sure he could hook me up with a sweet look.”

Henry frowns. “Maybe I should have a look at-“

“Heya, fellas!” Henry hadn’t noticed the doors opening again but now Darryl is bounding towards them, Ron trailing just behind.

“Hey, man.” Glenn greets with a nod, and the conversation is pulled away from personal matters. 

Henry wonders if they all woke up for the same reason. That they had been together for so long that they could just sense when someone wasn’t there anymore. He wonders if they would’ve been able to sleep at all if it had taken longer to rescue Glenn.

Darryl announces a dad huddle, or “well, I guess just a group hug.” He kneels down and manages to wrap his arms around both Glenn and Henry, hand resting on Ron’s shoulder. Ron himself is leaning delicately against Glenn. Henry leans into Glenn’s other side to make a Glenn sandwich out of dad bread, so to speak, and they stay in the frankly uncomfortable position for longer than their usual huddles tended to last.

They talk about future plans for a while. It mostly leads nowhere, but the purpose of the conversation is just to talk for the sake of it. For comfort, not to find a solution for all their problems overnight. They head back inside eventually, Henry is the last one in the door. Glenn holds it open for him and gives him a smile as Henry takes the weight of the door. Glenn walks off further inside, but Henry looks back.

The prison still sits there in the distance, a looming threat. Henry is struck with his usual compulsion to fix everything, but is left with nothing at his disposal. Things are far from perfect, and Henry is beginning to suspect it’ll be impossible to erase what’s been done. The universe is _determined_ to punish Glenn.

Henry doesn’t approve of everything Glenn does. He disapproves of _most_ things he does, actually. But that court had been a _scam,_ and Glenn sure as heck doesn’t deserve _this._

So, honestly? _Fuck_ the universe. Henry would find a way to help Glenn no matter what. Whether it’s getting Nick back himself or just finding a way to show Glenn it isn’t impossible, he’d do it. Glenn can do what he needs to do to keep his head in place in the meantime. Henry has this covered.


End file.
